Not again.

Just as his spacecraft, Travelling Man, flashed back into Normal Space from the netherworld known as hyperspace - the dream began. Eeven though Hapgood preferred not to call it a dream.

It's a Terokian maintenance subroutine. That's all.

An incredible real subroutine admitted Hapgood.

These dream-like episodes had become a regular occurrence for Hapgood ever since his departure from Terok Prime. He had spent several years as a guest of the Terokians, a race of sentient machines.

His arrival on Terok Prime had been spectacular, to say the least. The astronaut from Texas and his spacecraft had slammed into the Terokians planetary defense grid. His injuries had been devastating - his flesh literally separated from bone and tissue.

The Terokians had repaired Hapgood and his spacecraft as best they could. Now he was primarily machine. A cyborg with a drawl.

Hapgood had parted with the Terokians nearly a year earlier. He had left the security of Terok Prime to venture back into space to find the Robinson family. Like Hapgood, the Robinsons were lost in space. Thirty years earlier, they had helped him unselfishly. Hapgood meant to repay the favor.

If he could find them. He and Travelling Man had spent the past several months tracking the Robinson's deutronium trail around the galaxy.

Hapgood had accepted the dream-like episodes as a form of Terokian therapy. The episodes were always activated during non-critical time segments and lasted less than half an hour. There was never anything new in the episodes. He always relived some past event in crystal clarity. Like watching a movie with surround sound.

Lately, Hapgood had begun to suspect that the dreams carried some other purpose. It was if the episodes the Terokians replayed for him were an attempt to warn him of an impending event.

Whatever the rationale, Hapgood had no control over it. He wasn't happy about that. Not at all.

He didn't resist. There was no point. His non-essential systems powered down and focused on the images the Terokians danced before him.

I'm back in Texas, observed Hapgood. It's the summer of 1970 …

Jimmy Hapgood found himself climbing the jagged sides of Signal Peak. Signal Peak was a pyramid shaped outcropping a few miles east of Big Spring, Texas. The geographical anomaly rose several hundred feet above the flat West Texas plains and was accessible only on foot, being several miles from any roadway.

Over his shoulder, Hapgood could see his friend, Richard Harrel, grinning back at him. It was Richard who had suggested they make the trek to Signal Peak in the heat of a West Texas August. Hapgood was beginning to regret his decision to take part in the adventure.

Being the summer between his junior and senior year of high school, Hapgood tended to make a decision first and regret it later.

Hapgood and Harrel had begun their quest in the cool of the morning, squeezing through a barbed wire fence and hiking toward the mysterious outcropping on the horizon. Hours later, they had begun their actual ascension. Somewhere during their hasty climb up the steep slopes, Hapgood had dropped his canteen and watched it bounce and clatter down the slope and disappear into the dense mesquite brush that encircled the base of the peak.

Stay away from the tunnel.

Although he had long since learned that he could not impact the outcome of the Terokian induced dream states, Hapgood insisted on trying. To no avail. The events from his past continued to unravel just as they had decades before.

Signal Peak had a plateau that spanned about a hundred meters. From this plateau, several hundred meters above the flat and dry West Texas plains, Hapgood and Harrel rested. Friends since elementary days, Hapgood nevertheless treated Richard warily. Richard had a tendency to attract trouble.

"Go ahead", prodded Harrel "Check out the tunnel".

Hapgood peered down into the crevice that seemed to split the plateau at its middle. The tunnel within the crevice was actually an abandoned mining shaft. The entranceway having long since fallen victim to the elements. Only a few rotting timbers marked its existence.

"… Unless you're chicken".

Richard always knew how to push Hapgood to the edge. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

This time it did.

Hapgood clambered down to the tunnel entrance, slipping on dry stones and gravel until he was ten meters or so below the surface. Above him, Richard peered down with his usual bemused grin.

"What do you see, Jimmy Boy?"

"Let my eyes get adjusted. It's kinda dark down here."

As the minutes passed, Hapgood could make out more detail of his surroundings. He was standing on a narrow outcropping. Beyond the edge, the crevice dropped abruptly into blackness. Behind him, the mineshaft slopped into the rocky earth.

He found himself staring into the darkness of the shaft although he could discern no details. It was several minutes before he realized that he was not alone in the darkness.

Something was moving in the mineshaft. An unseen force that made his blood run cold. He could sense its movement. It was coming toward him.

"Jimmy?" asked Richard.

"Quiet!" he snapped, never taking his eyes of the shaft entrance. "There's something down here. I'm coming back up."

He could now hear deep breathing from the tunnel. Something large, with rattling chest sounds, was on the move. Glancing quickly around the ledge, Hapgood realized getting out of the crevice was going to be harder than getting down.

He began backing up the wall, keeping his eyes on the shaft. The breathing was louder, echoing along the crevice walls. Hapgood ignored the chatter of his friend above. He just wanted to be back in the sunlight.

He forced himself to turn his back to the mineshaft long enough to clamber up the jagged walls. Tearing the skin on his fingers as he clawed his way upward. Finally, just a few feet from the surface, he could see his friend's pale, taunt face as he stretched his arms downward to pull him up, urging him to hurry.

Hapgood nearly tumbled backwards when Harrel's eyes widened as his voice took on a frantic new pitch.

"Jimmy, behind you!"

Hapgood snapped his head and glanced downward over his shoulders. Peering from the mineshaft's gloom were a pair of large yellow eyes. His legs and knees dug into the crevice walls as blind panic kicked in. His friend's shouts above him became static in his ears as he turned back to face the eyes again.

He knew now what lurked in the mineshaft. It was a cougar. A very large cougar.

Although extremely rare, these large felines still clung to existence in the desolate areas of the southwest. This one had apparently taken to the natural protection offered by Signal Peak and did not take lightly to having its domain intruded upon. It moved from the darkness into the dusty grayness and snarled at Hapgood, baring its fangs

To Hapgood's horror, the creature rose and dug its front claws into the crevice wall. Hapgood could see that the animal was a large animal and it was now less than three meters below him. It suddenly occurred to Hapgood than perhaps the animal had sought the solitude of the mineshaft for reasons other than a need for solitude. It was very likely that the creature was a female, protecting one or more cubs back in the mineshaft.

The cougar suddenly leaped up with a blood-curdling snarl and Hapgood lost all interest in analyzing the creature's motivation. He focussed all his fear and energy on one last surge of desperation, covering the final meter or so to the surface in less than a second.

He thudded into Harrel as he lurched out of the entrance. The two boys tumbled backward, raising a cloud of powdery dust as they scrambled away from the tunnel opening, still resonating with the cougar's snarls.

They made their way back to the roadway in a fraction of the time it had taken them in the opposite direction. Their clothes were torn and they shook violently, fighting to catch their breath. It was nearly two hours before they climbed into Hapgood's '63 Ford Falcon and drove back to town.

Hapgood and his friend rarely talked about their adventure on Signal Peak. They finished their final year at Forsan High and then lost track of each other.

But Hapgood had never forgotten the terror he felt in the darkness.

The dream subroutine ended with a flash. Hapgood received a status report from Travelling Man and began scanning ahead for traces that the Robinson family had passed through this area of space. He had no time to ponder the significance of the Terokians' choice of dream material.

Hapgood had began his search for the Robinsons after leaving Terok Prime by returning to the planet he had found the family marooned thirty years earlier. By the time Hapgood returned to Priplanus, as the Robinsons had dubbed it, the world had been torn to cosmic rubble decades before. To Hapgood’s relief, he had detected traces of the ionized trail left by the Robinson’s ship, the Jupiter 2, headed away from the system. He and Travelling Man had been following it ever since.

From time to time, he came across a planet the family had settled down upon for a brief rest and repairs to the ship. Many times, he found evidence that the Robinsons had made emergency landings. The abandoned campsites showed signs of major repairs to their ship. Hapgood was always amazed by the family’s endurance and will to survive.

It made him more determined than ever to find them. And get them home.

The long range scanning sensors suddenly beeped an alarm and Hapgood linked to his ship's computers for the incoming data. Travelling Man had detected a metallic object, approximately two meters heading directly toward them at a leisurely pace. A volley of diagnostic scans assured Hapgood there was no danger from the object. The scans revealed some startling details.

It's from Earth, isn't it?

Travelling Man confirmed that the object was indeed of Earth origin. Analysis of the surface erosion suggested it had been exposed to the vacuum of space for at least a dozen years.

Hapgood was linked directly to his ship in a form of Terokian machine to machine communication. He processed the most minor of detail pouring in from the scans. The data feed halted abruptly. Hapgood issued a command to resume and he got the impression that Travelling Man was hesitating. He was about to switch to manual override when the data stream resumed.

Hapgood knew immediately why Travelling Man had held back.

That thing's a damn coffin!

In a instant, Hapgood flashed back to his encounter with an alien that dwelled in Hyperspace who called himself the Time Merchant. The alien had warned him that his search for the Robinsons might not turn out as he expected.

As he studied the image of the coffin, Hapgood wondered if it contained one of the Robinsons. He was not so naïve to assume that the family had spent over thirty years in space without at least one fatality. Space was a hostile environment. No place for a family picnic.

Hapgood had regretted his decision not to take Penny and Will Robinson back to Earth within hours of leaving Priplanus three decades earlier. John and Maureen, although hurt by his rejection of their request, had seemed to understand. Hapgood never understood why.

Several hours later, Travelling Man had the coffin in tow. A series of close range scans revealed that the occupant was a human male. Travelling Man's best estimate was that the occupant had been nearly ninety years of age at the time of death.

Hapgood was relieved that the age ruled out all members of the Robinson party. The eldest member, Dr. Smith, would have been only eighty-four according to Travelling Man's records.

"Then who the Hell is in there?" wondered Hapgood.

Eventually, Hapgood decided to retrace the coffin's path to determine its origin. He was disturbed to learn that the coffin originated at a point that crossed paths with the Jupiter 2.

Three days later, Travelling Man reported that the origin of the coffin was just ahead and in visual range. Hapgood ordered his ship to hold position while he studied the craft directly ahead.

The craft was definitely of Earth origin - Hapgood could even make out a faded American flag painted on its outer hull. As far as he could tell, the craft contained no propulsion mechanism other than stabilizing retrorockets.

To Hapgood, the craft most resembled the deep-space fuel barges that Alpha Control had on the drawing boards as he was training for his Saturn mission. As he remembered, the fueling barges were basically large docking disks surrounded by large fuel modules. Nothing more was required for the unmanned fueling stations.

This craft, however, had a bulkier central disk, suggesting that it may have been designed for human occupants.

After several hours of observing the craft in stealth mode, Hapgood ordered Travelling Man to make contact. Travelling Man began transmitting a series of hailing messages using Alpha Control protocol.

There was no response other than an automated docking beacon signal, directing Travelling Man to advance to the primary docking area. As his ship approached, tracking beams locked on and pulled Travelling Man toward the outer rim of the docking disk. The ship touched down and was immediately greeting by a docking tube that snapped onto Travelling Man's outer hull.

A series of scans of the craft posed more questions than answers. The scans revealed movement in at least one of the corridors, but no human lifeforms appeared to be on board. Hapgood began to suspect that the station might be under automatic control and the movement simply that of maintenance robots.

There was no response to Travelling Man's radio hails and there was no navigation beacon present on the station. In fact, the majority of the station's external lights appeared to be non-functioning.

As he often did in potentially hostile situations, Hapgood opted to be cautious. He pulled a mech drone from his chest compartment and tossed it out main hatch. Mech drones were tennis ball size Terokian drones that allowed Hapgood to check out the perimeter without leaving his ship. The Terokians had provided him with three mech drones when he departed Terok Prime. However, two of the mechs were in the midst of a diagnostic maintenance routine and were unavailable.

Within moments, Hapgood was scanning the corridors of the space station using the mechanical eyes of the mech drone.

Interior lighting was still operational, although functioning at an extremely low level. The mech automatically switched to low-light visual mode.

As it floated down the corridors, the mech scanned in a sweeping motion. Despite the age of the craft, the walkways were relatively free of debris – supporting Hapgood’s theory that there were perhaps one or more maintenance robots still in operation.

Travelling Man beeped and alert and Hapgood swiveled to the scanner display. Two blips flashed onscreen. One blip was the object detected by Travelling Man’s motion detectors. The other blip was the tracking signal emitted by the mech drone. Hapgood was startled to see that the two blips were converging on the scanner screen.

"Damn!" he muttered under his breath as he snapped his attention back to the visual transmitted by the tiny mech drone.

The transmission was brief. A large silhouette streaked out from the shadows and the transmission shattered instantly into static.

Hapgood spun around in frustration. The destruction of the mech drone had happened too fast, and now he was blind. The scanner screen displayed only one blip now. Whatever it was made its way to the corridor just outside the docking chamber.

"It’s waiting for me now" he told Travelling Man.

Travelling Man responded by sending Hapgood a replay of the last few seconds of the video transmitted by the mech drone. Travelling Man froze the image on the silhouetted object at the fringe area of the monitor.

The image was dark and blurred by the motion of the mech drone to avoid whatever had smashed its circuits. Nonetheless, Hapgood could clearly make out what was at the center of the dark mass.

A glowing pair of large yellow eyes!

Hapgood stared at the viewscreen for several minutes. He wasn't exactly sure how he felt. If were still human he supposed his blood would run cold. As a Terokian Exploration Unit, however, he had almost no blood to chill.

In his mind he replayed the 'dream' sequence from his childhood. Having just relived it, the image of the cougar eyes in the abandoned mineshaft was as vivid as if it had just happened. The eyes from a summer fifty-seven years earlier were an exact match.

If the eyes in the video image were those of a West Texas cougar, what was it doing on a deep space refueling barge? Linking up to Travelling Man's onboard computers, they began factoring possible explanations.

The options were not numerous. Hapgood and Travelling man both agreed it was unlikely that the species had naturally developed somewhere other than Earth. Hapgood was almost ready to accept the idea that he was imagining the cougar eyes entirely. He conceded they might be a byproduct of his recent Terokian 'dream' subroutine. Perhaps his machine to machine link with Travelling Man had also corrupted his ship's data.

Then Travelling Man found the answer.

Travelling Man had been dividing his time formulating explanations with Hapgood and probing the space station's onboard computers. Travelling Man found most of the computer systems still functioning, although relatively idle. They were quickly reactivated as Travelling Man put them through a series of diagnostic routines.

The initial diagnostics revealed that the majority of online databases were either corrupt or inaccessible. Travelling Man was able to extract bits of information about the space station and the fate of its crew. Most importantly for Hapgood, the explanation for a cougar roaming the corridors was found with minimal searching.

Even so, Hapgood was skeptical.

"You mean to tell me this space station was some kind of zoo?"

The information that Travelling Man had extracted from the station's computers gave a fragmentary history of the space station.

The station had been built in Earth orbit as a deep space 'lighthouse', designed to serve as a navigational reference point and port of call for the ships that had were expected to follow the Robinson family into colonization missions. However, the failure of the Jupiter 2 mission to Alpha Centauri had changed everything.

Instead, the station had been diverted to other purposes. There were hints that the change in mission had something to do with Alpha Control's efforts to regain public support after two consecutive Jupiter Mission failures.

The ship had been launched from Earth orbit exactly one year after the Jupiter 2 had become lost in space. It carried a crew of 23 and a most precious cargo. According to the station's manifest, it had left Earth carrying the frozen embryos of hundred's of endangered, or outright extinct, species of wildlife - including cougars.

The ship's mission was to travel to the Alpha Centauri system and orbit the one habitable planet - now dubbed Alpha Prime - and begin systematically introducing the various animal specimens from earth into the local environment.

However, something went terribly awry. The ship had developed impurities in the fuel that had caused thrusters to detonate, sending the station careening off course and out of contact with Alpha Control. Food supplies were damaged and the crew, mostly scientists, eventually faced starvation. They had made a desperate effort to clone the endangered species in their care to create a food supply.

Their efforts had apparently been too little, too late. The crew, in a moment of crazed desperation, had abandoned ship.

But something in their care had survived.

Hapgood, pushed his battered Stetson back on his head.

"That's quite a tale" he told Travelling Man. "But I don't know if I can swallow it. Not without a bellyache the size of Dallas".

Hapgood had already decided he was just going to have to check things out for himself. After giving Travelling Man orders to report any new data he as able to recover to him immediately, he popped open his ship's hatch and floated out to the docking tube.

As he waited in the airlock for the pressure to stabilize, he peered through the viewport into the dimly lit waiting area and scanned for any sign of movement. There was none, and the airlock door creaked open to reveal the station's interior. Hapgood sighed and moved forward.

"Richard," he muttered to himself. "I wish you were here with me."

The door shut tightly behind him.

The moment the airlock door shut behind him, Hapgood regretted that his two remaining Mech Drones were still not back online. With the drones he would have a way to scout ahead for whatever still lurked in the darkened corridors of the space station.

Although the Terokians had replaced his damaged human eyes with artificial visual devices, they had used restraints. The Terokians had attempted to mimic his human senses during his reconstruction to provide him with a sense of normalcy. However, Hapgood sometimes suspected they had made some slight modifications. He just wasn't sure what they were.

He moved cautiously across the docking area waiting room, floating about a meter above floor level. His visual units rotated 360 degrees to scan all four corners in rapid fashion.

Aside from his mechanical arms, that were normally stored within his chest cavity, the visual units on his "head" were the only true mechanical parts in his new body.

The Terokians had merged his surviving biological parts with a Terokian Explorer Unit. The unit was designed for long range space exploration and was practically one large silicon chip. The Terokians had learned that, in space travel, the fewer moving parts, the better.

Travelling Man began transmitting new data as Hapgood reached the door that exited out of the waiting area. Whatever it was that destroyed his Mech Drone was no longer waiting outside that door. It had vanished off the tracking screen as soon as Hapgood had opened the airlock door.

However, Travelling Man reported that the movement sensors had detected another object moving steadily from the far side of the station in his direction. The scanners identified it simply as - nonhuman.

"Can you be more specific?" sighed Hapgood.

Unfortunately, Travelling Man could not oblige. The ship's tracking system could only determine that a nonhuman object was within five minutes of reaching Hapgood's position. Hapgood decided to stay put.

"I'm the outsider here. I'll let whoever, or whatever it is, come to me."

Meanwhile, another stream of data poured in from Travelling Man. The ship's analysis of the space station had raised more questions than answers.

For one thing, the station should not have any power or lighting at all. The station's power cells had long since exceeded their life expectancy. Since the station was positioned in the void between stars, there was insufficient solar radiation for solar batteries.

"So you're telling me this station should have become driftwood years ago?" asked Hapgood, still focussed on the doorway in front of him. "Maybe Alpha Control did some roadside service."

Travelling Man disagreed immediately. The analysis of the station docking records had revealed that the last ship to visit the station was the Jupiter 2 - nearly 28 years earlier. Travelling Man had uncovered a copy of the Jupiter 2's logfiles stored in the space station's computers and was retrieving them for study. Before Hapgood could ponder that bit of information further, the door slid open before him.

Compared to the lighting in the waiting room, the hallway leading away from it was brilliantly lit. The figure that stood in the opened doorway was visible as a silhouette only.

It appeared humanoid. Tall and lanky, almost frail in build. Hapgood focussed on the arms dangling at the side, relieved to see that they held nothing resembling a weapon.

Hapgood's relief was short-lived as he focused on the humanoids face. The features were still indiscernible in the shadows, the head framed by a tangled mass of curly hair. What got Hapgood's attention was the objects protruding from the side of the humanoid's head like …

"Horns!" snapped Hapgood. "Just who the devil are you?"

The figure in the doorway reacted visibly to Hapgood's voice as it echoed through the empty waiting room. It slid quickly to one side of the doorway in defense and then reached out an arm to slap a switch just outside the doorway.

Overhead lights crackled to life and Hapgood got a good look at his welcoming party. Whoever, or whatever, it was, was a wearing an ill-fitting military uniform, but carried no visible weapons.

Hapgood would have made the assumption that he was looking at a surviving member of the stations crew if not for the face. Framed in a mass of dense curly hair was the gaunt face of man, possibly in his mid forties.

Too young to have been a member of the crew, mused Hapgood. Unless Alpha Control sent another family out into space.

What Hapgood had mistook for horns were revealed in the light to be elongated ears protruding several inches from the tangled hair.

"You're not what I expected," the man finally spoke, his voice soft and hesitant. His dark, almost oriental eyes, studied him closely. "My computer database identified your ship as belonging to Captain Hapgood."

Hapgood's chest plate slid open and he extended his right arm.

"Call me Jimmy Hapgood, son." He drawled as the stranger cautiously returned the handshake. "Nobody's called me Captain Hapgood since I got out of range of Alpha Control."

Hapgood could see the man was skeptical.

"Let's just say I had an accident awhile back and I'm a changed man. It's a long story and I'll share it with you later. I haven't caught your name yet".

The man hesitated briefly before replying.

"I'm Lieutenant Foley. Jay Fogey. Please forgive the welcome, but you're the first visitor in a very long time."

"And the rest of the crew …?"

"I suggest we discuss this in the Ready Room," said Foley gesturing down the corridor. "Life support is a low priority in this sector of the station."

Hapgood followed Foley down the corridor to the central ready room. Along the way he explained how he had retrieved a coffin and retraced its path to the station. The man, to Hapgood's surprise, had no comment about coffin or its occupant.

Without pressing the subject, the Texan also gave Foley an overview of his transformation from Texan to cyborg on Terok Prime and how his quest to find the Robinson family had brought him to the space station.

"I suppose I also must credit the Robinsons for my presence on this station, Mr. Hapgood," said Foley as they entered the station's Ready Room.

"Penny Robinson found me on a planet the Robinsons had landed on for repairs," he explained. "I was the last survivor of a colony from a world in the Sendivian system. Penny's father insisted that I leave with them when a cosmic storm threatened the system."

Just like the Robinsons, thought Hapgood. Always picking up strays.

"When the Jupiter 2 reached the space station, we found a sole occupant who identified himself as Colonel Fogey. When the Robinsons left the station after a brief layover, I chose to stay behind."

Hapgood received more data transmissions from Travelling Man.

"According to John Robinson's logfiles" said Hapgood. "They left behind someone named J-5 …".

"That was my birth name" explained the lieutenant. "The original plan was for me to stay only until the next resupply ship arrived at the station. When that never happened, Colonel Fogey adopted me. I chose a more … human name to honor him."

"This Colonel Fogey sounds like he was quite a guy."

Lieutenant Fogey averted his eyes momentarily.

"My father was a great man, Mr. Hapgood. When we learned that our station had drifted out of the regular space lanes he was heartbroken. He had promised me that he would get me back to my homeworld. He had assumed that when Earth relieved us, arrangements would be made to return me to my people."

"When he realized that Earth would probably never find us, he worked very hard to get the station back in shape and get us back into the space lanes. Perhaps he worked too hard. He died twelve years ago. I'm sure you've surmised by now that Colonel Fogey's body is in the coffin you retrieved. I read in some of his Earth books that explorers were often buried at sea. Space, in a sense, is the sea that my father explored …"

"I wish I could have met your daddy, son" said Hapgood. He placed a mechanical hand gently on the man's shoulder. "He sounds like someone who cared an awful lot about you."

Fogey's eyes narrowed a bit when he turned back to face Hapgood.

"My father died a broken man because he made a promise he wasn't able to keep. He promised to get me back home."

"I know all about those kind of promises." Hapgood replied flatly, retracting his arm back into his chest cavity. He wanted to change the subject.

"Tell me about the lab animals that the original crew cloned for food."

A shadow flickered across Foley's face.

"Lab animals?"

"The animals that were cloned from the embryos this station was transporting to Alpha Prime," explained Hapgood. "It's all there in the station's logs."

"You've accessed the station's logfiles?"

Hapgood was beginning to detect a trace of panic in Foley's face when an alarm sounded from somewhere down the corridor. Foley turned away and began walking to the doorway leading to corridor, without waiting for Hapgood's reply.

"Is there a problem, son?"

"No," replied Foley without looking back. "I must have left something on in my quarters …"

"And the alarm?"

"The alarm is to remind me to shut things down, to conserve power." Before Hapgood could comment, Foley disappeared down the corridor.

While waiting for his host to return, Hapgood decided to do a quick review of the Jupiter 2 logfiles. Linked directly to Travelling Man's computers, he downloaded and reviewed several days worth of data on the Robinson's visit to the space station. He puzzled over some gaps in the log entries. Travelling Man reported that several files were corrupted. Hapgood told him to attempt to restore as much as possible.

"Penny was already growing up fast, Travelling Man" he muttered as he observed video of the Robinsons entering the station's docking bay. "And this is from years ago. A girl like that should have been dating boys back on Earth rather than stumbling around the galaxy …".

Hapgood marveled at the Jupiter 2, docked at the station. It was the first time he had seen both levels of the ship. The last time he had seen the Jupiter 2 it was half buried in the sands of Priplanus. Attached to the video files were scans that the station had made of the ship. He was surprised to find the Robinsons had made some modifications.

"That John Robinson is a clever one," he grinned. "Looks like somewhere along the way he managed to add some type of shuttlecraft." Travelling Man's analysis revealed that the small craft stowed in the belly of the Jupiter 2 was a hybrid of earth and alien technology."

After reviewing the files, Hapgood was relieved to see that the Robinsons appeared to be well, although still no closer to reaching Earth. The castaways had apparently recalibrated their flight navigator based on the faulty data from the space station.

"John didn't know the 'lighthouse' had drifted off course", Hapgood realized. Professor Robinson had given no indication that he doubted the accuracy of the data. That raised several questions in Hapgood's mind: Why didn't Colonel Fogey tell Robinson about the fuel impurity that threw the station off course? Why no mention of the crew's desperate attempt at animal cloning when the station's food supplies ran out?

Even more puzzling was a log entry by Professor Robinson that indicated that COL Fogey had prepared a welcoming dinner for the Robinson party.

"Doesn't sound like the station was out of food when the J2 dropped by …"

However, the log entry that struck Hapgood the hardest was Professor Robinson's final entry, recorded just prior to departure from the station;

"Although our family has known J-5 for only a short while," the entry read. "It is still difficult to leave this young man behind. He is, after all, an orphan out here among the stars. As much as I would like to see him stay with us, I realize that his best chance to return to his homeworld is to stay on the space station. If my own children were somehow to find themselves in J-5's situation, I would hope that whoever found them would do whatever it takes to see that they were safely returned to Earth …"

By the time the log entry had finished transmitting, Hapgood had made his decision.

At that instant, Foley returned to the Ready Room and closed the door behind him. Hapgood once again got the impression that the man was nervous about something.

"Everything OK back at your quarters, son?"

"Just fine, Mr. Hapgood," Foley replied. "I forgot to shut off a soldering iron I was using for some circuitry repairs. Everything's fine now."

Hapgood decided to get right to the point.

"Look, son," he said slowly. "I don't understand everything that's going on here, but I do understand that your Colonel Fogey meant the best for you. So did John Robinson. They just ran out of time to finish the job. I plan to finish it for them."

"What do you mean?"

"I plan to get you home, boy," Hapgood replied simply. "When I leave here, I'm gonna give you a first class ride back home. It may be a bit cramped in my ship, but Travelling Man says he can get us to your system in less than two months."

Fogey's eyes were wide. His frail frame trembled.

"I don't know what to say …" he whispered.

"Don't need to say anything. Just get your gear ready for departure."

Fogey turned and bounded toward the corridor door. As he reached it he suddenly stopped and turned back to Hapgood, his expression suddenly somber.

"And what about my father?" he asked.

"Colonel Fogey's casket is secured to Travelling Man. I think it's only fitting that he accompany you back home. You can give him a proper burial there. I think he'd like that."

Fogey nodded. "I think you're right. I'll go get my things. I shouldn't be long."

As he turned back towards the door, the station lights flickered. The station pitched sharply, sending dishes on the dining tables sliding to the floor. Fogey stumbled, but braced himself in the door frame. Hapgood, floating above floor level, was unaffected.

An alarm began to pulsate down the corridor. However, it was another sound that captured Hapgood's attention. It was muffled in the distance, but increasing in intensity. Hapgood had no doubt of the origin of the sound. The sound was still fresh in his memory.

It was the angry snarl of a cougar. The lights in the Ready Room flickered ominously and blinked off. Within moments, the station's emergency lights kicked in - bathing the room and its occupants in dull, red lighting.

Before Hapgood and Fogey could say anything about this turn of events, the snarl of the mysterious animal again pierced the silence. The sound was much closer this time. Travelling Man confirmed that the source of the sound was less than fifty meters from Hapgood's position, and moving fast.

Turning to face the doorway that opened to the darkened corridor, Hapgood was instantly struck by how it suddenly resembled the mineshaft entrance back on Signal Peak - dark and mysterious.

Backing away from the doorway, Hapgood motioned Fogey behind him instinctively. He wasn't sure if Fogey's facial expression was that of fear or surprise. Hapgood had no time to ponder the issue as the rattle of claws just outside the Ready Room signaled the arrival of the beast.

It’s entrance was dramatic.

Hapgood first glimpsed the yellow eyes at the doorway - seeming to glow with a light of their own. The eyes wavered briefly at the entranceway before the beast leaped with terrifying speed at Hapgood.

The creature was large. Larger than Hapgood remembered from his last encounter. As the cougar literally flew through the air, Hapgood reacted instinctively. His right arm slid quickly from the chest cavity, already armed.

In less than a second, he aimed and fired his laser weapon. The cougar, bathed in a crimson hue and suspended in mid-air, flashed and burst into a shower of sparks. The sparks coalesced into a smoldering ember on the Ready Room floor.

"NO!"

Fogey's scream came too late. Hapgood had reacted with the speed of a machine. Had he still been human, the creature would have reached him before he could have fired a weapon.

Hapgood was surprised as Fogey pushed him aside and ran forward, bending down over the glowing remains on the floor. The man began to reach out to the remains. Before Hapgood could utter a warning, the remains grew dark.

Fogey looked back up at Hapgood, his face showing obvious pain.

Not physical pain observed Hapgood..

"Son, what the hell do you think you're doing!" snapped Hapgood. "What made you run out there like that?"

"Did you have to shoot it, Mr. Hapgood?" he asked flatly.

"It looked pretty clear to me the animal was not here to play fetch." Hapgood returned his weapon to its case. "Seems to me I didn't have much choice." He floated over to Fogey.

"Care to explain where this animal came from?"

"I've never seen this animal before," said Fogey, rising to his feet. His face was dark and murky.

"You mean to tell me that a fully grown cougar has been living on the station and the two of you have never met?"

Hapgood sensed that Fogey was not really listening to him. His mind seemed elsewhere, his head cocked to one side. Fogey made a furtive glance downward and when he looked back, Hapgood sensed that he appeared … relieved.

Hapgood turned his gaze back to where the cougar had fallen. The embers that, moments before had gone dark, appeared to rekindle. Small particles merged to form a small, pulsating orb the size of baseball.

Fogey picked up on Hapgood's object of attention.

"You can actually see it?" he blurted in surprise.

"You mean if I can see a floating 40 watt light bulb" muttered Hapgood, "Then I guess I can. Care to start explaining?"

Once again, Fogey seemed distracted.

"The Robinsons or my father were never able to see the Zabo," he explained. "I just assumed it was invisible to humans."

Hapgood realized that his suspicions about his Terokian visual replacements had been correct. He was able to see light bands outside the normal range.

The orb of light now circled Fogey, almost defensively.

"I think I deserve an explanation, Fogey," Hapgood said.

Fogey sighed a weary sigh and, after a pause, began to provide the Texan the details of his strange space odyssey.

He recounted how he had nearly died with the rest of the colonists three years before the Robinsons had found him. Some type of infection had killed most of them. The elements had taken the rest.

Fogey, known then as J-5, had narrowly escaped the fate of the others in his party when wandered away from the colony during a storm and stumbled into a large cave. It was there that he met the Zabo.

The Zabo, explained Fogey, was a creature of pure energy that existed in small numbers on the planet J-5's people had colonized. They lived solitary lives deep in the planet's crevices. The Zabo had sensed J-5's distress telepathically and had ventured up to the surface to investigate.

Even Fogey could not explain why the Zabo had come to his aid. Yet it had. Keeping the native predators away and harvesting edible vegetation for the youngster's nourishment. Although small, the Zabo had the ability to assume other forms as a means of defense.

The Zabo had kept him alive until the Robinsons found him.

Even then, the Zabo had instinctively sought to protect J-5. The creature had used it's morphing abilities to assume the form of an animal to scare them away.

"It was like the animal that attacked you", explained Fogey. "Only different. Penny called in a lion."

When he left with the Robinsons, Fogey had taken the Zabo with him. After the Jupiter 2 had left the space station, Fogey had told the Colonel about his protector and the elder Fogey had accepted it.

His adopted father, explained Jay had not always been a Colonel. He had assumed that role when the real officer had abandoned ship with the crew during a meteor storm. Fogey had actually been the station’s maintenance man and been left behind in the confusion. He had given himself the title during his long period of isolation before the arrival of the Robinsons.

The whole story about animal cloning, Hapgood realized, was a false story implanted in the station’s computers by the Zabo to explain the appearance of the cougar apparition.

Hapgood surmised that the crew that abandoned the station never made it back to Earth, or some type of salvage operation would have been launched.

Several years after the Robinsons left, it became obvious to the Fogeys that no resupply ships were coming from Earth. The station began to breakdown and power cells ran their course. Death was near.

Once again, the protective instincts of the Zabo arose.

The Zabo had interfaced with the onboard power grid and used it's own life-force to sustain the station's power cells. Rechannelling pure cosmic energy, the creature was able to maintain the station’s life support and other critical systems.

The Zabo, however, had been unable to reverse the elder Fogey’s failing health.

"I have not seen another human since my father died," concluded Fogey. "Since I jettisoned his casket, it has been only myself and Zabo aboard this floating hunk of metal."

His story complete, Fogey turned away from Hapgood.

"Look, son" said Hapgood. "Like I told you, I have a way to get you back to your home planet. You’re welcome to take that overgrown lightning bug back with you."

"You don’t understand, Mr. Hapgood" replied Fogey, turning back towards him with genuine pain in his eyes.

"The Zabo life-force is now part of this station. It cannot leave the confines of this structure or it will die. After what it has done for me I cannot leave it behind."

Hapgood mulled this latest development over and consulted with Traveling Man before responding.

"Look, son" he drawled. "I’m not saying it will be easy. But if we have to tow this oversized six pack into hyperspace to get you back home, then that’s exactly what me and Traveling Man will do."

Hapgood was naturally gifted in the art of understatement.

Traveling Man nearly suffered serious circuitry damage computing the specifications for encasing the station in a force field that would allow it to traverse hyperspace. Hapgood and Fogey spent several days of back breaking work refitting the station’s engines for entry into hyperspace. 9; One of Hapgood’s two remaining mech drones was reprogrammed to serve as the autopilot for the flight, triggering the precise reentry back into Normal Space.

Finally the work was complete and the station began powering up to drop down into hyperspace and the long journey to Fogey’s homeworld. The casket containing the body of COL Fogey was stored away in solemn silence. Hapgood said his farewells to Fogey and his strange companion and then he and Traveling Man pulled away from the station to observe the hyperspace jump from a safe distance.

Hapgood found himself experiencing mixed emotions. He was pleased that he was able to help Fogey return to his own kind. Yet he found himself depressed that he appeared no closer to fulfilling his promise to return Will and Penny Robinson to Earth.

The station began to pull away and Traveling Man signaled that the hyperspace jump was imminent. Hapgood tipped his faded hat and radioed Fogey and Zabo that their journey home was beginning.

"Next time, we’ll say that to the Robinsons," he told Traveling Man. "Next time, the Robinsons".